NEW DELHI: The Modi government is renaming yet another welfare programme to remove its association with the Gandhi family. This time it’s the Indira Awaas Yojana, which aims to build homes for the rural poor. It’s to be renamed the Pradhan Mantri Awaas Yojana. Cornerstone of the government’s housing-for-all initiative, this is meant to mark the start of an overhaul.

“The name is being changed and many upgrades being made to the scheme,” a senior official said.

“We are still discussing the inclusion of the word ‘Grameen’ in the name of the scheme,” the official said. A Cabinet note amending the scheme has already been floated by the rural development ministry. This proposes that the homes get bigger and costlier. The unit cost of each house will nearly double to Rs 1.25 lakh from the current allocation of Rs 75,000 per household.

In the new design, the kitchen will be bigger, increasing the overall area to 25 square metres from 22 sq m. The government is also proposing to converge this with other rural development schemes. The Modi government has already renamed at least two programmes that bore Rajiv Gandhi’s name — one after Sardar Patel and the other after BJP icon Deendayal Upadhyaya. The programme will continue to have linkages with the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan to ensure toilets in each house.

Construction has been made an eligible item of work under MGNREGS (Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme) programme and therefore 90-95 mandays of unskilled manual wages can also be availed of by housing scheme beneficiaries.

The states have also been asked to make sure that benefits of the Unnat Chulha Abhiyan (more efficient, less polluting cooking fuel) along with the Jan Dhan Yojana (financial inclusion) and the Deendayal Upadhyaya Gram Jyoti Yojana (electrification) are made available to beneficiaries.

DECLINE IN HOUSES BUILT UNDER IAY

There has been a steep decline in the number of houses constructed under the Indira Awaas Yojana in the past three years. In FY15, 9.80 lakh houses were constructed against a target of 25.19 lakh.

The expenditure incurred was Rs 10,764 crore against a budgetary estimate of Rs 16,000 crore. The government has set a target of building 3 crore houses under its rural housing scheme in the next seven years. Under the Indira Awaas Yojana, each unit gets assistance of Rs 70,000 for new constructions in the plains, Rs 75,000 in hilly and difficult terrain and Rs 15,000 for upgradation.

In its response to the standing committee on delays and missing targets, the rural development ministry said it has started monitoring unspent balances, progress made, direct benefit transfers and convergence with other schemes.

The ministry also said that the Indira Awaas Yojana is being revamped and implemented in mission mode to achieve a pucca house for all by 2022.

“The mobilisation of resources has been a major constraint,” it said. “The IAY scheme will be fine-tuned in such a way that it is flexible enough to analyse the grassroot-level problems in different geoclimatic zones and to fix the quantum of assistance according to the requirement of the needy.”

The government also launched its Housing for All by 2022 scheme for urban areas this year with a central grant of Rs 1 lakh per home.

ET View: New Wine in a New Bottle?

The change in housing scheme’s name should not detract one from assessing whether the revamped scheme is in keeping with the needs of the intended beneficiaries. Linking the housing programme to other social sector schemes relating to sanitation, clean cook stoves and rural electrification is a good idea. This will, if implemented properly, result in improved quality of life for the beneficiaries as well as cost savings by reducing overlapping costs. Including construction of these houses as part of the MGNREGA jobs is also a good move. But the real test will be in the effective implementation.